A CLINIC FOR MURDER

Minutes after Dr. Doyle Smith collapses at a San Diego medical examiners' conference, muttering, ``Murder...letter in safe...authorities...'' into Dr. Samantha Turner's ear, Sam's in his hotel room looking for that letter. There goes the convention—Sam spends the night in stir—and there goes Sam's honeymoon with her stepson Derek (who pursued her though The Holiday Murders, 1992)- -somebody bombs the flight they've booked back to Sheridan, Wyoming. The sequel, as Sam (whose pregnancy takes her off the plane at the last minute) alternately swaps light-comedy repartee with Derek (also surviving) and grimly tags the remains of the dead, shows Landreth's writing at her best and worst: despite an ingenious and gripping premise that ties the murder motive to some scary tissue-research at a St. Thomas clinic, she never finds a tone that would weave together all the threads of the story. A mix of homicide, midlife romance, coverups, and unassimilated forensic detail that reads like a bunch of outtakes from Sam's promising debut. But Landreth's talent ensures that she'll be back with a stronger vehicle.